52.
accumulating b&w fotograf
in other news: still unpacking, sorting, filing; everything’s a transitive verb. back to this blog mid july. fingers crossed.
50.
i’m moving to ohio: so that’s what.
will retool for late summer, early fall.
there’s consumptive twitter until then.
a warm and resplendent summer to you.
49.
soon to be new studio and darkroom in springfield ohio: 3 north / high street
48.
Strange Overtones
David Byrne / Brian Eno
46.
from the television show Mad Men
a presentation by Molly Wright Steenson
from Fieldbook of Wound Surgery published Strasbourg, 1519
21 very short stories by Kio Stark
artworks
45.
Photograph
Light-inscribed
Likeness
Vulnerable to light,
To the oils of the hand.
The paper sensitive
The dyes ephemeral
The very medium
A trace of absences.
Speed of the years
Speed of the shutter.
The child’s father
Crouches level to her
With the camera so
She crouches too.
Agile the dancer.
Little room
Of the camera, wide
Gaze of exposure-
Shiva the maker
Shiva the destroyer:
The flash of your hammer
Fashions the shelter.
44.
let the air carry everything, words
only care for what we’ve gleaned
a sheen on those things
we want tugging
demanding
love
43.
How Film Is Made for Your Camera
Kodak factory film, 1958
graphite on paper; a brief essay
sculptures; an interview [pdf]
41.
The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands
Everyday, something – this time
a French ship with all her passenger & crew
slides into the North Sea, the water so cold
it finishes them. Nothing saved
but a life ring stenciled GRACE,
cut loose from its body. A spokesman can ony
state his surprise
that it doesn’t happen more often.Late August, as I rode the ferry
from here to the city, a freak storm
surprised everyone,
& the Captain, forced below,
asked for a show of hands
as to whether we should go on. A woman beside me
hid her entire head in her jacket
to light a cigarette.For years I had a happy childhood,
if anyone asked I’d say, it was happy.
39.
by David Foster Wallace
photographs by Andrew Pope
into the photographs of Frederick Sommer
photographs by Ursula Sokolowska
38.
man ray taking a photo, 1937
Ask me, if you like, to choose what I consider the ten best photographs I have produced until now, and here is my reply:
1. An accidental snapshot of a shadow between two other carefully posed pictures of a girl in a bathing suit.
2. A close-up of an ant colony transported to the laboratory, and illuminated by a flash.
3. A twilight picture of the Empire State Building completely emptied of its tenants.
4. A girl in negligee attire, calling for help or merely attracting attention.
5. A black and white print obtained by placing a funnel into the tray of developing liquid, and turning the light onto the submerged paper.
6. A dying leaf, its curled end desperately clawing the air.
7. A close-up of an eye with the lashes well made up, a glass tear resting on the cheek.
8. Frozen fireworks on the night of a 14th of July in Paris.
9. Photograph of a painting called, “The rope dancer accompanies herself with her shadows. Man Ray 1916.”
10. Photograph of a broken chair carried home from Griffith Park, Hollywood, at one of its broken legs the slippers of Anna Pavlova.
- man ray, from the essay Photography Is Not Art, 1943
37.
Things
Paul Westerberg
Things I wanna tell you
How you make me feel
How you look to me
And how good it feels
Things I don’t wanna tell you
Every little thing’s all right
What I was before
And where I was last nightAlways things
All these things
Always thingsThings I try to tell you but come out oh so wrong
Seem to feel pretty good, seem to last pretty long
Things I don’t wanna tell you
Now there ain’t no doubt
You lit a fire in me
Can’t seem to put outAlways things
All these thingsThings I long to tell you but I don’t know how
Things I don’t wanna tell you but I have to now
Packed my thingsThings I’m bound to tell you like that dress looks great on ya
I could use some breathing room but I’m still in love with you
Things I’d never tell you, down the line someday
You’ll be a song I sing, a thing I give away
36.
Technical notes on making a Blurb book:
Use the B3 custom work flow; this will help assure color and density consistency from book to book. Also you will be able to see a very close soft proof on your monitor of what your printed images will look like. You need to have a color calibrated monitor for B3.
Use the premium paper; it is thicker and brighter white. This makes for a more brilliant image with clean highlights.
Convert your images to the sRGB color space. Also resize your images at 300ppi to the size requirements of the layout [remember to use "bicubic sharper" in Photoshop image size dialog box if reducing] and save in RGB mode as a jpg at the highest quality setting. Should you leave it to Blurb to convert the color space and resize your images, you lose control.
For monochrome images I recommend using a duotone preset from Photoshop. I’ve read complaints that it can be difficult to obtain a neutral grey image from Blurb’s printer. With a duotone, though the color might subtly shift from screen to print, it will present far less of a problem than a slightly magenta or green tinted neutral grey would. Also a duotone will lend a pleasing dimensionality to your images.
Blurb’s printer renders midtones and highlights beautifully, but tends to block and muddy the shadows. Also, due to the difference between subtractive color [ink] and additive color [monitor], images often look darker when printed than they appear on screen. Its likely your first book will look too dark as mine did.
I was uncertain how much to lighten my images, so for the second attempt I simply lightened all the photographs by 10% using the “lighter” preset from the drop down menu in Photoshop’s curves dialog box. I knew this was going to be too light — but that’s ok. Between the too dark first proof, and the too light second proof, I had two known control points – 10% apart – with which to more accurately judge the correct density for optimum shadows.
For the third proof I individually adjusted the density of each image to where I felt it should be between the too dark and too light proofs, making careful note of the curve data. When I received this book, it was very near acceptable. Following my curve notes for each, I re-adjusted the density of about a third of the images; very slight increments were needed at this point, just 1% or 1.5% up or down to open up a shadow or bring back a little mystery, as well as to balance the layout as a whole.
If I were to make another book I’d use the same process, but print the too dark and too light images in one large book, to save time and money.
For you darkroom printers, you might recognize my strategy as not unlike zeroing in the correct density by using test prints. Michael A. Smith’s outflanking the print is my guide.
35.
Suginami : a book by James Luckett
Suginami is one of the 23 ‘ku’ or ‘wards’ of Tokyo, an area of the city where I lived for five years and where nearly all the photographs in the book were made. For me the photographs are not intended necessarily as a document of a specific place or time. Rather the photographs explore the ways the world can fit into the edges of a frame, the transformation of light inside the dark box of the camera, and the space of discovery between the viewfinder and the eye.
7×7 inches / 78 pages / 68 tritone photographs
hardcover with dust jacket
available for purchase from Blurb.com
also see an interview with Stacy Oborn at her blog The Space In Between: One Thing Done Two Ways: Elijiah Gowin and James Luckett on Making a Book
34.
dream slim slow days
when i needn’t
dream anyone
so much
as you
33.
a short video by Shannon Oksanen
a short film by Chris Marker told through photographs
Paris, early in the morning – a film by Claude Lelouch
32.
Sayings of the Blind
Feeling is believing.
Mountains don’t exist. But their slopes do.
Little People have low voices.
All things, even the rocks, make a little noise.
The silence back of all sound is called “the sky.”
There’s a big stranger in town called the sun.
He doesn’t speak to us but puts out a hand.
Night opens a door into a cellar-
You can smell it coming.
On Sundays everyone stands farther apart.
Velvet feels black.
Meeting cement is never easy.
What do they mean when they say night is gloomy?
Edison didn’t invent much.
Whenever you wake up it’s morning.
Names have a flavor.
30.
the woman behind the camera at Abu Ghraib
a chronology of 279 photographs
author of The Lucifer Effect discusses Abu Ghraib
a memoir of torture by Nick Flynn
Regarding the Torture of Others
an essay by Susan Sontag
an interview with Lynndie England
29.
Art as Falsehood
For Simone Muench
Art by its nature is about the significant. To the extent that art is an expression of the artist’s being, it expresses what the artist thinks and feels to be significant. To the extent that art is an act of communication, it is a statement to an audience of what the artist thinks and feels to be important. When an artist decides to devote a week, a month, or a year or more of his life to creating this rather than that–he is saying that This is worth his time and effort. When the artist presents the results of his efforts to an audience, he is telling them that his creation is worthy of the time and effort of their contemplation. We do not waste our time on the insignificant or ask others to waste theirs–unless we wish to express the significant belief that nothing is significant.
- Raymond Bianchi, from Immediate Empire
28.
photograph
just thing
she said
have no
meaning
26.
Adams’ Ansco 130 Variation / a soft working print developer
Developer Stock Solution
750 ml water (125 degrees F)
2.2 gr metol
35 gr sodium sulfite (anhydrous)
78 gr sodium carbonate (monohydrated)
11 gr glycin
+ water to make 1000 ml
Mix chemicals in order given; begin with a pinch of sodium sulfite to minimize oxidation of the metol.
Use diluted 1:2. Activity will be slow, with a developing time between two and eight minutes. Provides brilliant near neutral tonality with excellent separation of values. Over time solution will darken quite brown, but maintains a long tray life.
Working strength developer may be further adjusted with the following two solutions:
10% KBr Solution
1000 ml water
100 gr potassium bromide
To prevent fog add as needed to working solution of developer.
Hydroquinone Solution
750 ml water (125 degrees F)
25 gr sodium sulfite
10 gr hydroquinone
+ water to make 1000 ml
To boost print contrast add as required to working solution of developer. Will cool slightly image tone.
25.
the president’s effect on a small Texas town, a film by David Modigliani
Farewell to All That: An Oral History of the Bush White House
with photographs by Annie Leibovitz; makes ‘em look like weasels
what are the next president’s options?
24.
All Through the Night
Lou Reed
It ain’t so much when a man’s gotta cry
to get a little loving and some peace of mind
said, hey baby, give it to me all through the night
Some people wait for things that never come
and some people dream of things that never been done
they do it, oh baby, all through the night
The city’s funny and the country’s wide
but I wanna know why they don’t have a riot
don’t they do it, oh baby, all through the night
Oh mama, oh mama, tell me ’bout it
all through the night
I wanna have it all through the night
Christmas comes only once a year
why can’t anybody shed just one tear
for things that don’t happen all through the night
Ooh mama, all through the night
oh baby, do it to me all through the night
Easy, easy baby, why don’t you give it to me
all through the night
23.
me and my succulents,
Celia, who used to sit on the window sill,
and the aloe vera known only as Marcos,
wish you well
happy holidays
22.
meditative film of Kodak plant in France
photographs by Lithuanian artist
Identity Theft collages
spectral inertia
21.
Easy bellows extension exposure compensation; you need a list + two numbers.
1) The list: F-stops in 1/3 increments, keep this close.
3.5
4
4.5
5
5.6
6.3
7.1
8
9
10
11
13
14
16
18
20
22
25
28
32
2) First number: know the focal length of your lens in inches; divide mm by 25.4 to arrive at the customary unit. Some common conversions: 90mm=3.5″ 150mm=6″ 210mm=8.26″ 240mm=9.4″ 300mm=11.8″ Locate this number on the F-stop list.
3) Second number: measure the bellows extension in inches from the center of the lens plane to the center of the film plane. Locate this number on the F-stop list.
Method: total the number of 1/3 stop differences between the focal length and the bellows extension and that will be the approximate increase in exposure required.
Example: 150mm/6″ lens is about 6.3 on the F-stop list with a bellows extension of 9 inches counts 1 full stop of added exposure. Another: 210mm/8.26″ lens is 8 on the F-stop list with a bellows extension of 10″ equals 2/3 stop increase in exposure.
20.
- Robert Frank, Mabou, Nova Scotia 1995
Well, I looked at the exhibition here; somehow boredom is a rough word to use. I looked at Mili’s stuff and that certainly bores me. I like what Smith wrote about the photographs–why he photographs, what he believes. I wouldn’t be bored with him because he’s obsessed with it. I’m never bored when I feel an obsession in somebody. I’m bored with the aesthetics of photographs, but then I think Walker’s photographs are like jewels. They stay the same. I’m not bored with that. I’m trying to define how I am bored with photographs. I’m sort of bored with mine.
If I continued with still photography, I would try to be more honest and direct about why I go out there and do it. And I guess the only way I could do it is with writing. I think that’s one of the hardest things to do–combine words and photographs. But I would certainly try it. It would probably fail; I have never liked what I wrote about my photographs yet. That would be the only way I could justify going out in the streets and photographing again.
- Robert Frank, April 1975 at Wellesley College symposia Photography within the Humanitiess
19.
directed by Patrick Wilkinson
video by Paul and Marlene Kos
talking head Jacques Derrida
17.
Rex’s Blues
performed by Jay Ferrar and Kelly Willis
written by Townes Van Zandt
Ride the blue wind high and free
She’ll lead you down through misery
Leave you low, come time to go
Alone and low as low can beIf I had a nickel I’d find a game
If I won a dollar I’d make it rain
If it rained an ocean I’d drink it dry
And lay me down dissatisfiedLegs to walk and thoughts to fly
Eyes to laugh and lips to cry
A restless tongue to classify
All born to grow and grown to dieTell my mother I did no wrong
Tell my baby I said so long
Tell my brother to watch his own
And tell my friends to mourn me noneI’m chained upon the face of time
Feelin’ full of foolish rhyme
There ain’t no dark till something shines
I’m bound to leave this dark behindRide the blue wind high and free
She’ll lead you down through misery
Leave you low, come time to go
Alone and low as low can be
16.
hand tooled hand held wide angle large format
the story of Kodak’s first digital camera
uses a camera as big as a camper
14.
and then the stars devoured the sky
13.
Crawley’s FX-2K / a high acutance film developer
Stock Solution A:
750 ml water (90 degrees F)
2.5 g metol
35 g sodium sulfite (anhydrous)
7.5 g glycin
+ water to make 1000 ml
Stock Solution B
750 ml water (90 degrees F)
112 g sodium metaborate
+ water to make 1000 ml
Mix chemicals in order given; begin stock solution A with a pinch of sodium sulfite to minimize oxidation of the metol.
Working strength solution for stand development is A:B:Water = 1:1:18.
Development time is 60-90 minutes.
Presoak film for at least one minute. Agitate film in developer for the first 30 seconds and then again 30 seconds halfway through.
*expose film at rated speed; do not overexpose.
[minimum exposure / maximum development]
12.
security and imagination
David Foster Wallace on teaching Franz K.
Carola Vogt and Peter Boerboom
document the intersection between nature and civilization
10.
The Camera Fiend
Camera! Camera! Camera!
For Breakfast, dinner, and tea,
And I would that my tongue dare utter
The thoughts that rise in me,
But, alas! there’s a law for too much jaw
While the camera fiend goes free.
Camera! Camera! Camera!
No matter how fine the day
The dark room’s charms and the ruby glow
Are better than old Sol’s rays;
And the cat and the dog and the chimney log
Have been “took” in a hundred ways.
Camera! Camera! Camera!
I never shall feel the same,
I’ve a simpering gaze which I cannot brook
And posing is all too blame;
While the conscious look of this shady nook
To me is a burning shame.
Camera! Camera! Camera!
The world is no longer the same.
Since my landscapes were foggy and
failed to please
The plates I say are to blame.
But my three-legged horses and houses like trees
Have brought me undying fame.
- Lillian M. Ratcliffe, 1903
9.
Thoughts for an eleventh September: Alvin Toffler, Hirohito, Sarah Palin
Adam Greenfield on the non-future of this future
an Ask Metafilter answer breaks it down
photographer Sean Smith interviews soldiers of the 101st Airborne
beautifully crafted handmade viewmasters
photographs by Frederik Froument
8.
How do I know that enjoying life is not a delusion? How do I know that in hating death we are not like people who got lost in early childhood and do not know the way home? Lady Li was the child of a border guard in Ai. When first captured by the state of Jin, she wept so much her clothes were soaked. But after she entered the palace, shared the king’s bed, and dined on the finest meats, she regretted her tears. How do I know that the dead do not regret their previous longing for life? One who dreams of drinking wine may in the morning weep; one who dreams of weeping may in the morning go out to hunt. During our dreams we do not know we are dreaming. We may dream of interpreting a dream. Only on waking do we know it was a dream. Only after the awakening will we realize this is a great dream. And yet fools think they are awake, presuming to know that they are rulers or herdsmen. How dense! You and Confucius are both dreaming, and I who say you are dream am also a dream. Such is my tale. It will probably be called preposterous, but after ten thousand generations there may be a great sage who will be able to explain it, a trivial interval equivalent to the passage from morning to night.
6.
the fear is in the shutter
letting loose, settling right,
the one picture that hurts.
it’s not that i won’t
love it; just not
certain i’ve
the heart
5.
Iraq war as filmed by a National Guard platoon on convoy duty
Q&A: Slavoj Zizek, professor and writer
the master of the run on gag
Hasisi Park is a Korean artist
two projects: Housemaid are photographs inspired by a character from filmmaker Kim Ki-young and Family documents Park’s recent visit with her Japanese cousins.
3.
hey, is your power out?
yeah. my power’s out.
mine too. i’m just down the street. i was in the basement when everything went dark, thought it was a fuse.
yeah. i got no air conditioning. no fan. no tv.
porch lights are on across the street, so they’re alright.
yeah. all we got’s daylight.
i hope it doesn’t last long. maybe i should call the electric company.
least it’s not like that one time.
this happened before?
oh yeah. the whole thing was out. from New York city to California.
the whole country?
everythin’. coast to coast. out. for four weeks.
four weeks?
yeah. four weeks.
what did you do?
nuthin. we didn’t do nuthin.
2.
Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan and the Home front, in the Words of US Troops and Their Families
selected stories, poems and letters from the war as read by Stephen Lang, Joan Allen, Chris Chalk and Matthew Modine; a brilliant and chilling podcast.
Against Ease: Or How the Infinitely Reproducible Pushes Us Further from the Source
Michael David Murphy on getting back in the darkroom
Found: double exposures, ghosts and invisibles made visible
a flickr set of vintage photographs collected by Roz Leibowitz
1.
Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Lucy
Manuel Alvarez Bravo and I walk across the courtyard to the darkroom, maneuvering around bulky, expensive equipment that has been draped and pushed to the corners, unused. Slowly, he makes his way past the tin kitchen cups and eighteenth-century irons that have replaced precise measuring tools and electrical paper presses. A bed of tinted glass marbles sits conspicuously in the sink. Chemicals in hand, he turns his picaro eyes toward me. “Ariadne, after we work on these negatives, maybe you could accompany me to the photo shop. I like to ask them for things I know they don’t have. That way we keep them entertained, no?”
- Ariadne Kimberly Huque, diary excerpt January 11, 1989